The term Biogenesis refers to “Life From Life”.
An Overview
According to the records of early science, for centuries, people blindly believed in their interpretations of what they saw around them. Around 2000 years ago, they all assumed a spontaneous generation.
For instance:
Every year, during the spring season, there would be floods in some areas, leaving behind nutrient-rich soil, which helped people grow their crops for food.
Along with the nutritious soil, many frogs and other aquatic species appeared, and they blindly believed that the healthy soil gave rise to these marine species.
The ponds and other water bodies would dry up with no frogs and fish during the summer season. All believed blindly without any experiments.
There are many such examples, which made people blindly assume and support the theory of spontaneous generation.
According to this theory, living things arise spontaneously from non-living matter. This theory today is called abiogenesis. Abiogenesis refers to the spontaneous generation of living things, including microbes.
Many scientists opposed the theory of spontaneous generation and conducted many experiments to prove how living things arise, and the origin of life on earth.
In 1665, Redi’s, Spallanzani and Pasteur’s experiment proved that all living things arise from other living things and are composed of minute cells. These led to the theory of Biogenesis.
Explore more: Characteristics Of Living Organisms
What is Biogenesis?
As mentioned above, the term Biogenesis refers to all living things that come from other living things. This also gave rise to the cell, cell theory and the theories on the origin of life.
Many experiments with positive outputs disapproved of the theory of spontaneous generation and finally approved Biogenesis.
Spontaneous Generation vs Biogenesis
Let us glance at the most important experiment conducted by different scientists to disprove the theory of spontaneous generation.
Experiment No. 1
In 1668, an Italian physician disproved the idea of spontaneous and proved that flies arose from the living and existing flies.
Procedure
- In this experiment, he selected two large and clean glass beakers.
- Place the same amount of meat into the beaker.
- The first beaker was kept open.
- The second beaker was covered or closed with the lid.
- He placed the two beakers aside and left them undisturbed for a few days.
Observation
After a few days, he observed that:
- In a first beaker, i.e. beaker without a lid, many maggots developed on meat, and flies were present in and around the first beaker.
- In a second beaker, i.e. beaker with a lid, there were neither maggots nor flies around the beaker.
Result
This experiment disproved the idea of spontaneous generation for all living organisms, from smaller microbes to giant animals.
Experiment No. 2
Louis Pasteur, a French biologist, microbiologist and chemist, is remembered for his remarkable experiments and discoveries. He gave the Theory of Biogenesis.
According to his experiments, he proved that microbes come from other microbes. According to Pasteur’s hypothesis: all living organisms arise from the cells of organisms on dust particles in the air, whereas not from the air itself.
Procedure
- Pasteur selected several unique S-shaped flasks and divided them into two different sets.
- Pasteur prepared a broth.
- Pasteur added the prepared broth to the first set of S-shaped flasks, boiled it, and sealed the flasks with lids.
- Pasteur added the prepared broth to the second S-shaped flasks, boiled it, and uncovered it.
- Later, he placed both flasks (first and second) sets at different locations.
Observation
After a few days, he observed that:
- He noticed the dust collected on the neck of the flasks.
- In the first set of flasks, there was no microbial growth,
- In the second set of flasks, there was microbial growth.
Result
Hence, he proved that microbes are present in the air but will not arise from the air or dust. In both sets of flasks, he used the same boiled broth, but the first set of flasks was sealed, and the second set was left open for microbes to enter, reproduce and multiply.
Explore more: Origin of Life
This article concludes with an introduction to Biogenesis.
To know more about Biogenesis, other theories on the origin of life, and other related topics and important questions, keep visiting our website, at BYJU’S Biology.
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